About Me

I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Bill's Best of 2015 Fiction

The
start of a new year brings to me to a pair of my happiest posts of the year as
I put up Bill’s Best of Fiction, Non-Fiction and Most Interesting. Those posts
involve reviewing all my posts for the previous year. The process always brings
back good reading memories. In 2015 I read 45 books which is below my annual
goal of a book per week. The time I spent on newspapers and facebook took time
away from reading last year. I am going to read hard in 2016 to get back to a
weekly book.

Of
the works of fiction I read my favourites were:

1.)
The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The
Chessmen by Peter May are the Best of 2015. It is the second time I have
had a trilogy featured as Best. In 2009 it was the first two books in Stieg
Larsson’s Millennium series, The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl
Who Played with Fire. I justify choosing a trilogy as the Best book of the
year as my personal right to define the terms of my awards. As well they are
one long story in three parts.

May’s
Hebridian trilogy took me deeply into a part of Scotland that I had not been
reading about for over 30 years when I read Lillian Beckwith’s autobiographical
works of fiction of her life in the Hebrides.

In
reading May’s books I felt the bite of the wind off the Atlantic, saw the
dazzlingly blue sky swept clear of clouds and felt the unique texture of
walking in peat bogs. If the Hebrides were even 2,500 km instead of 7,500 km
away from me I would be sure to visit them.

May,
in Fionnlagh (Finn) McLeod, has created a character as vivid and compelling as
any author in recent memory. The former Edinburgh police officer has his
personal troubles but they do not leave him a wreck of a man. After 20 years he
returns to the Isle of Lewis and solves a trio of murders.

I
have never accepted Thomas Wolfe’s dictum that you can’t go home again. You
cannot go back to the same home but you can go home. The returnee will still
have profound connections with the past.

Best
of all the murders in the trilogy are all related to life on the island, its
geography and its history. They could not have been written in a different
setting.

2.)
Killing Pilgrim by Arlen Mattich was
a finalist for the 2015 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction novel in
Canada. It did not win the Award though in my analysis of the shortlist I
thought it was the best and deserved to win the Award. Maybe being 2nd
on Bill’s Best of 2015 Fiction will be a modest recompense.

The
book opens with the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, by a
Yugoslavian secret service agent. I had never appreciated the number of
theories that exist on who killed Palme until I did some research after
finishing the book. I do not think the real life killer was a member of
Yugoslavia’s intelligence agency but Mattich has put together a compelling
story.

Killing Pilgrim is the second
book in a series with Marko della Torre, a member of the Yugoslavian secret
service, who is now coping with the breakup of the country and his role as a
Croatian.

The
book also features a dangerous American woman agent who destroys gender lines
in her lack of morality and affinity for violence.

3.)
The Secret of Magic by Deborah
Johnson ties for third this year. In mid-year if I had been asked what I
expected to be the great legal mystery of the year set in the American South I
would have said without hesitation Go Set
a Watchman by Harper Lee. Instead, The
Secret of Magic was by far the better book.

Regina
Mary Robichard, a brand new Negro New York lawyer, is sent by Thurgood Marshall
to rural Mississippi in 1946 to investigate the death of Lt. Joe Howard Wilson.
Being a war hero could not save Joe Howard from being brutally beaten and
killed because he did not keep his place in southern society as he returned
from the war.

In
Mississippi Ms. Robichard stays in the guesthouse of fabled children’s author,
Mary Pickett Calhoun, who is a staple of local society. Mary Pickett wants to
do what is right but it is hard in the Deep South of that era.

3.)
Joining The Secret of Magic in third
position is Another Margaret by
Janice MacDonald. It is the second of two books written by Canadians on this
year’s Best of Fiction list.

Another Margaret is an excellent
academic mystery but it became a Best of the year book for two reasons.

With
the lead character, Randy (Miranda) Craig, an Alberta university professor of
English the book is filled with references to Canadian literary figures and
their works. I enjoyed seeing how many I recognized.

Most
important MacDonald had Craig write about the life and novels written by Margaret
Ahlers, an Alberta English professor, who was reclusive to the extreme.

To
have Craig study the literary work at a university level meant MacDonald
created detailed plot lines for five additional books within Another Margaret.

Had
the ending been as good as the rest of the book Another Margaret would have been my choice for Best of 2015
Fiction.

I
had a good year or reading and hope your year went as well. Happy New Year for
2016!

Happy New Year, Bill! I'm very glad you found some excellent reads this year. I couldn't agree more about the high quality of the Lewis trilogy. Those are excellent stories in a very well-drawn context. I liked the characters very much, too. Looking forward to your next post.

All of these books sound great, Bill. I have had The Blackhouse on my shelves for three years and haven't read it yet. Time to get to it. The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson sounds very good, although it might be a difficult subject for me. I will definitely get a copy of that.

TracyK: Thanks for the comment and a Happy New Year to you! From your past comments I think The Secret of Magic could be uncomfortable for you. It reflects the segregation that dominated the South in 1946.

A recommendation: If you like Grisham's books, read The Rogue Lawyer. It contains a lot of incisive commentary on social issues in the U.S., but has very colorful characters, especially the protagonist, Sebastian Rudd. But the humor reigns supreme; what a riot. It is a treat.

As I read your list I remembered several of your posts on the books. And I also remembered that I bought Another Margaret based on your review, and have it waiting for me! Thanks for your helpful and informative reviews all year.

Moira: Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate every comment you make on my blog. They make it a better blog. I enjoy the posts on your blog. I love your efforts to focus attention on clothes in books.

Do not keep Another Margaret waiting too long. You will be disappointed in yourself.